I am of course impressed by the model and the robot. Great stuff,

But the downside is that won't we all just turn into the obese, stupid humans at the start of the WALL-E film?

Mindfulness teaches us that we can enjoy the washing up, the laundry, planting seeds, tending the garden. It connects us to something. Without this will we end up with a rise in mental health issues, because for one thing people will just end up on social media in the time they save.

Just a thought.

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spaceman_2020 a day ago | parent | next [-]

Ironically, the people who can afford to have in-house help to handle things like cooking and folding clothes - the rich - also tend to be fitter and more active

Maybe if you can shave an hour every day from chores, you will actually have the energy to enjoy physical activities

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Cthulhu_ a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Probably not, as the washing machine, dishwasher, car, computer, etc didn't cause that either.

edit for nuance: Sure, it did for some people I suppose. But they are the exception.

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leoedin a day ago | parent [-]

I often wonder if they just made us do more washing, use more cups, travel further in the same time and get more expectations from our boss though.

I've got 2 kids. I'm always doing laundry and loading the dishwasher. How much of that is just higher expectations of cleanliness? Back when washing clothes involved going to the river all day, kids would get sewn into their clothes for winter. These days they have 5 outfit changes a day. I'm certain that my dishwasher means everyone just grabs a clean mug/glass/bowl rather than just rinsing a dirty one. I use a computer all day to get stuff done. But that just means my boss expects more stuff to be done. The baseline shifted.

A few hundred years ago people mostly lived near where they were born and didn't travel much. Now we get in our cars to drive a few hours to visit our family and friends. But they only moved far away because the car enabled it.

Obviously there are benefits - especially for those who find dirt upsetting - but have we actually changed the balance of leisure time very much?

	▲	XorNot a day ago \| parent [-]
		I mean I like the much lower rates of dysentery and untreatable skin and dental conditions... People have an extremely rosey view of the past shaped by the fact that period dramas are acted by modern Hollywood actors.

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schnitzelstoat a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Or we can use the free time to go to the gym.

Anything that frees us from labour is good.

	▲	spaqin a day ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Unemployment frees us from labor too but it's not exactly good either, I'd rather avoid it.
	▲	sph a day ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		> Anything that frees us from labour is good. Including labour itself? All we're doing is optimising the amount of time we can dedicate to work.

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echelon a day ago | parent | prev [-]

This discourse reminds me of the handful of Christians who thought we needed Corn Flakes and uncomfortable clothing to stay chaste and that electricity made us stray from God.

Chill. Your brain is the product of the past. Reread that: your brain is anachronistic and outmoded.

We get to live in the future now. Count yourself lucky. You're one of the few that got to witness the birth of flight culminating in landing on the moon, except in this case your floppy disk became your personal shopper and stay-at-home Michelin star chef and part time driver.

It's okay to feel a bit of discomfort. It's hard to believe this is actually happening in our lifetimes, but it is! And that's so cool.

So sit back and enjoy the future.